November 20, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 09, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 19: The Punjab University’s anti-Jamiat students managed to organise a relatively thin protest rally on Monday as most students opted to stay away when the protesters focused more on ousting Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT) from the campus instead of taking up larger national issues.

The charged protesters broke main glass door of the Institute of Communication Studies (ICS), besides manhandling its director Prof Dr Mugheesuddin Sheikh. They also reportedly thrashed and injured a lecturer and seven employees of the institute.

The uncalled for violent action by anti-Jamiat protesters was strongly condemned by the university students, faculty and administration at large. They said the protesters acted contrary to their cause and lost sympathies they had gained during their two-day protest on Thursday and Friday last.

The IJT activists again kept themselves off from the campus during the protest.

Sources told Dawn police had asked Jamiat not to hold a parallel protest rally on Monday fearing a clash, while others believed the university teachers had also played their role in keeping students off the campus.

It is learnt that some university teachers persuaded students to not to join the anti-Jamiat protesters and stay in their classes.

The anti-Jamiat protesters began their rally from University Law College with almost 200 students at 9am and marched to Hailey College and then towards ICS and other departments.

Chanting slogans against IJT, the protesters reached the ICS main gate and tried to enter the institute. However, the institute employees refused to let them enter as classes were going on. The protesters got infuriated and started thumping and pushing the main door, eventually breaking the thick glass to force their entry.

Right after, they started beating institute employees until director Prof Sheikh came there and tried to rescue them. As Prof Sheikh sought the identity of one of the protesters, a group of charged students started dragging him outside the institute building. A lecturer Muddassar Husain Shah, and some university employees, intervened and rescued Prof Sheikh fro angry students. The protesters then severely thrashed and injured lecturer Muddassar, sweeper Nasir Masih, Administration Officer Tanvir Shah, driver Iqbal and office staff members Muhammad Ali, Musharraf, Nadeem and Arshad.

Later, the protesters visited almost all departments but could not gather more than 200 students and finally concluded the rally after a protest meeting in front of vice-chancellor’s office.

Talking to Dawn they said university teachers had threatened the students with rustication and did not let them join the protest.

However, different students at Law College and other departments told Dawn that they themselves had opted out of the protest rallies as they were not optimistic about the outcome.

According to them, the protest campaign seemed to have been `hijacked’ by some other student organisations having sectarian and political agendas and they had directed it against the IJT alone. “We will not let the Law College become a platform for the campaign against IJT alone,” a Law College student said.

The students, requesting anonymity, claimed that Law College student Samiullah and 45 others, who had resigned from IJT, had gone underground after they received life threats from Jamiat activists.

The anti-Jamiat protesters delivered fiery speeches in front of VC office, demanding purging university of political, sectarian and ethnic organisations. There should be a complete freedom for students to form curricular, co-curricular, extra-curricular, social and cultural societies.

They demanded students’ representatives be elected on the basis of merit democratically at the level of classrooms, departments and hostels. They also sought promotion of freedom of speech, democratic culture, social consciousness and unbiased traditions on the campus.

They also demanded that the university should make arrangements to create academic environment of international standard.

An ICS student, Ali Ahsan Warraich, announced the anti-Jamiat protesters would now hold rallies twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. He also said the students would observe one-hour academic boycott — from 9am to 10am — on daily basis.

Speaking to the protesters, PU vice-chancellor Prof Dr Arif Butt urged them to hold protest in a peaceful manner. He said the students’ demands would be discussed in Deans’ Committee meeting.